pow

Found this elsewhere... haven't received my copy yet:

Not a TB, but I remember being inside a Rainier and pushing the passenger airbag cover in and out.

At the moment, it's the new Ford Focus ST. In Europe, it undercuts the pricing of the Golf GTI by a lot, so it could very well sell for $19,995 in the States. I still think the Golf is classier, but the Focus has more character and better performance. Sending the entire new Focus line-up here would be difficult, but not just the ST. It'd be one of those low-volume, image-building niche cars. Hmm, also, sending the Alfa 159 and Brera here would benefit the style-conscious. I'm doubtful it's as thorough as the 3, but it is cool, in the literal sense of cool. They could sell 'em at Maserati stores.

Usually real, but this year, we're getting fake because it's more eco-friendly. And, no, we don't have a Prius.

I wouldn't mind a chrome grille if it looked like the Park Avenue's in rivieraranch's sig. And I agree, all Lucernes should have gotten the CXS's lower fascia, even without fogs.

210 horsepower @ 6500 and 195 lb-ft of torque @ 3200 I'm purely speculating here, but since the CTS is the only GM car with the HF2.8, it sounds like they couldn't have bothered. Our 528i's inline-six makes similar numbers (193 hp@5500/206 lb-ft@3500), but it never feels out of breath.

What's overdrive anyway? I don't think I've ever driven a car with one.

Very nice... as nice as black cars look when they're clean, they're a PITA to maintain. This should help with the swirl marks and spiderwebbing.

For as long as I've remember, the Mercury section of LAIAS has always been pretty-much-deserted. It's right up there with Saab, Suzuki, and Isuzu for having the smallest crowds. I'm not sure what day I'm going yet. My sister is going media day as a designer. Chris Bangle is going to be guest speaker at one of the conferences...

It kinda looks cheesy, like an afterthought, the way they executed it.

The Mother of All Vettes on the Mother Road By Bill Baker Email Date posted: 12-01-2005 I had driven a 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 more than 2,000 miles from Chicago searching for bits of Historic Route 66. In California's Mojave Desert there was a long, lonely stretch of the old road that just might let me flirt with the 6's top speed of 198 mph. I hadn't passed anyone in miles and I could see the road ahead was empty to the horizon. I dropped the six-speed gearbox from 6th to 4th and floored it. Like a cathedral pipe organ playing Bach's "Toccata" with all the stops out, the 7.0-liter, 505-hp LS7 V8 began to thunder and howl toward its 7,000-rpm redline. The dual-stage mufflers opened to release back pressure and a soul-stirring roar that echoed off the mountains. The head-up digital speedometer and tach display changed numbers faster than a premium gas pump totals dollars. 105, 118…think, look, stay on it. 139 — the front end is feeling light over the rough pavement. Stare at the horizon 'til your eyes harden — and keep your foot planted. 145…flick your eyes for an instant to check the HUD. 154 mph. Things are beginning to blur…there's a slight rise looming…. Not today, folks. The cross-drilled front and rear disc brakes hauled the most powerful Corvette ever from 156 to 90 in two heartbeats. Sanity (and the wife-in-my-head) nags. I settle down to a speed that will allow me to further contemplate this F-16 of the road that so willingly responds to commands to take you where you want to go as fast as you want to go there. Route 66 and a boyhood dream My fantasy of driving across America in a Corvette was born when CBS launched the Route 66 TV show in 1960. The black-and-white drama put actors Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and George Maharis as Buz Murdock in a new Corvette roadster and sent them down the road in search of some meaning to life and "a place to put down roots." The show ran for four years and remains the most dramatically creative of any series that has had a car in a continuing role. For a 15-year-old car-crazed kid living in Sacramento, California, the thought of having the freedom to explore the open road in a Corvette instead of struggling with algebra and chemistry was a damned enticing fantasy. Forty-five years later I got my chance to live it. The Z06 The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is the most powerful production Corvette in the 52-year history of the marque. The performance specs are hard to find in any other production vehicle, let alone one that has a base price of $65,800: zero to 60 in 4.5 seconds; the quarter-mile in 12.2 seconds at 120 mph. And then there's the officially quoted top speed of 198. When a car can deliver this kind of performance, its ride characteristics are usually harsh and nearly unlivable. The Z06 rides just fine, thank you. It has no squeaks, rattles or wind noise. I did more than 3,000 miles in it with only one complaint: The seats lack lumbar support. I found a "Trucker's Pillow" which fit behind my back perfectly making the rest of the journey pain-free. As a teenager, the '60 Vette with its 275-hp 283CID engine with dual quad carbs was all I wanted in life. The '63 Stingray was cool, too. But Corvettes lost their appeal for me and I gravitated toward cheaper and more socially hauteur British sports cars. Corvettes didn't reflect my personality any more than a Harley-Davidson did. I traded American horsepower for English leaks on the driveway. But after years of solid Le Mans victories and design refinement, Corvettes are back on my radar screen. The new C6 and now the Z06 are among the very best sports cars in the world at any price. U. S. Route 66 is the highway that wouldn't die U.S. 66 was started in 1926, but wasn't fully paved until 1937. It linked Chicago with Los Angeles — crossing Illinois, Missouri, a corner of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Bobby Troup wrote a hit jazz tune "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" in the '40s and John Steinbeck immortalized it in The Grapes of Wrath, the story of the Joad family and other "Oakies" fleeing the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma. In the '40s, defense workers headed to California's aviation and aerospace industries. Family vacationers by the millions headed west when Disneyland opened in '54 and on into the '60s. Then came the interstate highways with their limited access. The historic road was officially replaced (east to west) by Interstates 55, 44, 40, 15 and 10. The last stretch of U.S. Route 66 was decommissioned by the federal government in 1985. But legends, and memories of a time when families were closer, die hard. Now, "Historic Route 66" signs are springing up in many towns along the old two-lane. Annual festivals and cruises are increasingly popular with us old farts who have never let go of the sense of adventure the highway instilled. Dilapidated buildings and their neon signs are being restored and preserved. Rural communities that withered when the interstates took tourists past without stopping are setting up Route 66 museums. Tourists from Europe and Asia are lured on the Internet and by marketing campaigns to see America as it once was. But that vision is illusory. It is often very depressing to see the vacant stores and factories in the cities, and rusting relics of motels and ice cream stands littering the old roadway as cars and trucks whiz mindlessly by on the interstates. Reading the history behind Route 66 and early highway development in America helps you appreciate where we came from as a nation and who we were as a people. You could take a week or a month to cross the country if you hunt down all the remaining bits and pieces of Route 66 and its various "alignments" over the years. Dedicated "roadies" who search out the old two-lane often return year after year to add stretches to their logbooks. Fantasies then and now My dream of a driving adventure was first realized in a cross-country car trip in 1960. Setting out on the road in those days meant you were going to have to be much more self-reliant; a phone call was from a booth, a breakdown was much more likely, and predictable food and lodging were a gamble. You had to learn to fold a damn map. But the places you saw for the first time in person, the regional accents you heard, the genuine "Indians" you encountered gave you a sense of being "out there." When you reached your destination, you had a greater sense of journey and accomplishment. While I was crossing New Mexico, my daughter called my cell phone to ask if I felt "isolated." Well, considering that she just called me and we were chatting while I rolled along at 75 mph; that I had read my e-mails on the phone; that I could listen to AM, FM, 155 channels of XM Satellite Radio, CDs, or my iPod — the answer was no, I wasn't exactly feeling cut off from the world. Today's generation of sons and daughters have been labeled "X" or "Y" by marketers like some kind of chromosomes. They're switched on, plugged in, media-savvy, and targeted by a never-ending marketing onslaught. They can download the wisdom of the ages or mind-warping techno music. They can see sex on cable, DVD and the Internet that inures them to the pleasures of discovery. But they can't experience the soul-stirring sound of a high-compression V8 running through the gears and the attendant G-loads on the body without actually doing it. Getting away from it all is all but impossible anymore. Finding a fantasy about it may be even more elusive. But I got mine.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drive...e.promo.1g.*#14 Chevy builds a muscle car out of a truck By Scott Oldham Email Date posted: 12-01-2005 At 130 mph, its electronically limited top speed, the 2006 Chevrolet TrailBlazer SS should be wandering around like a wino after a jug of dry chardonnay. But it isn't. Despite sharing aerodynamics with Carnegie Hall, Chevy's new muscle-bound SUV is dead stable and…hold on a second while I pass this truck…requires nothing more than a few fingertips on the steering wheel to keep it pointed straight down the road. Even when passing these 18-wheelers traveling at half our speed…like this one…it just pours past without getting…wait a second, here comes another one…pushed around by turbulence. Fact is, if it weren't for the roar of the airflow trying to dislocate the truck's large outside mirrors, our velocity would be completely transparent. To us, that is. Outside the confines of the TrailBlazer's leather interior, every trucker and highway patrolman between Barstow and Vegas is now on the lookout for the crazy bastards in the black SUV. Time for pie. Asylum is found in the Bun Boy, a Baker, California, landmark that's been feeding wayward motorists since 1926. There, within sight of the world's largest thermometer, we gorge on strawberry pie and reflect on the TrailBlazer SS, which is the first sport-utility to wear the iconic SS badge and the first truck developed by GM's Performance Division. Turns out the SS option package (option code G B4U) is much more than just a big engine, shiny wheels and steamroller rubber. For just $5,195 it adds a racetrack-tuned suspension, fade-resistant brakes, quick steering, a monochromatic exterior, a black mesh grille, well-shaped sport seats, and, of course, a big engine, shiny wheels and steamroller rubber. Plus, Chevy lets you order it on any short-wheelbase TrailBlazer, so you get to choose your trim level (LS, LT), your individual options and either rear- or all-wheel drive. Our test truck, a carefully optioned LT 2WD with heated seats and adjustable pedals (but no sunroof), proved to be a worthy addition to the Super Sport legacy. Mighty muscle "We were going to do it right, or we weren't going to do it at all," says Tom Wallace, the vehicle line executive of small and midsize truck at GM. "At first they wanted to use the 5.3-liter V8 and do nothing to the suspension. I said forget it." Instead of the 300-hp, 5.3-liter V8, which powers the TrailBlazer V8 model, Wallace fit the TrailBlazer SS with the 6.0-liter LS2 V8 that powers the Corvette and the Pontiac GTO. In this application, the all-aluminum pushrod engine pumps out 391 hp at 5,400 rpm and 395 lb-ft of torque at 4,400 rpm, which is a little shy of its output in the Vette and Goat. According to Wallace, who will take over as chief engineer on the Corvette January 1, the drop in power is due to packaging issues. Because of firewall clearance a different intake manifold had to be fitted, and a single exhaust was necessary because of the location of the truck's fuel tank. Although the exhaust uses a unique single straight-through muffler and resonator design to give the engine an epic roar, its lone chrome exhaust tip would be more appropriate on a fast and furious Honda than a 400-hp muscle truck. Two pipes poking out from under the TrailBlazer's rear bumper would certainly be more appropriate. Or better, four. Four speeds, no waiting Also borrowed from the GTO is the TrailBlazer's four-speed automatic transmission, which is electronically controlled and tuned for firm gear changes and wonderfully quick response. Full throttle upshifts are neck-snapping good and always right on the V8's 6,500-rpm redline. But the best part is how quick the transmission kicks down on the highway. Despite the truck's steep 4.10 rear axle ratio, which puts the engine up near 3,000 rpm at 80 mph, just a quick jab of throttle gets you 3rd gear and all the acceleration you could want. If you live near the North Pole order the all-wheel drive, otherwise save the $2 grand and go for a rear-wheel-drive example like our test vehicle. For bad weather, the standard traction and stability control should be more than enough, plus there's a small button on the shifter to disable those electronic party poopers. Tap it once and the traction control shuts off, hold it for several seconds and the stability system takes a nap. Now you can do hard launches and smoky burnouts from dawn to dusk if that's your thing. Don't worry, a stronger 9.5-inch rear end and an indestructible Eaton limited-slip differential are also part of the package. More than just muscle But smoking those 20-inch Goodyears into oblivion is just one arrow in the TrailBlazer's quiver. Impressive handling, a refined ride and surprising comfort are also part of the SS's repertoire. Bilstein shocks with SS-specific valving work with 25-percent firmer springs (conventional coil in front and load leveling air springs in back), which also lower the vehicle about an inch. Everything from the jounce bumpers to the amount of rebound travel has been modified, and the front stabilizer bar is 10-percent thicker. Although the ride can get a bit choppy over 80 mph, the ride up to that point is firm but comfortable. Body motions are extremely well controlled, and there's very little lean during hard cornering. This is a truck you can toss around like a sport sedan. To improve the steering, nearly every part of the system, from the ratio to the power-steering pump, was either replaced or extensively tweaked. And the results are astounding. It now has just the right heft, quickness and communication. After months of testing, which included time on Germany's legendary 12.5-mile-long Nürburgring, the TrailBlazer's front brakes were dumped for larger 12.8-inch front rotors and twin-piston calipers. Wallace and his team of gearhead engineers also equipped the TrailBlazer SS with a larger master cylinder and the same front brake pad material that's used on a Z51 Corvette. The rear disc brakes also get a more aggressive pad, but are otherwise unchanged. ABS is standard. Runs with a Charger RT Although it's easy to figure the TrailBlazer SS as a rival of the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8, it's more fun to think of it as the Dodge Charger RT fighter Chevy-heads have been clamoring for. No, we're not crazy. Check the stats. They perform about the same, cost about the same, and both wear iconic nameplates from the muscle car era of the 1960s. Our TrailBlazer, which stickered for $37,955, accelerated to 60 mph in 6.3 seconds and ran the quarter-mile in 14.4 seconds at 96.3 mph. The last Hemi-powered Charger RT we tested hit 60 mph in 6.2 seconds and blitzed the quarter-mile in 14.3 seconds at 98.6 mph. Good race, huh? The two would also be bumper to bumper on a mountain road. The lower and lighter Charger did out-slalom the TrailBlazer, but not by much (61.8 mph vs. 60.3 mph), while the big black truck won the 60-mph-0 braking contest (118 feet vs. 121 feet). Cool. While we expect the 425-hp SRT-8 Grand Cherokee to out-perform both, its base price is over $39,000, and it's only available with all-wheel drive. Plus, the TrailBlazer offers 81 cubic feet of cargo room and can tow 6,700 pounds. Two specs neither Mopar can compete with. Wait, there's more You know, it's been 10 years since Chevy offered a V8-powered rear-wheel-drive sedan. Remember the 1996 Caprice-based Impala SS? Well, you've just met its successor. Chevy says it will build as many as it has demand for.

I've always liked the current Navigator interior... it was very contemporary. In many ways, the Navi reminded me of a poor man's Range Rover.

There's no "rear crash test," but rather a study of the head rest design. The Corolla doesn't deserve to be on that list because aside from the Cobalt, it's the only small car to get an acceptable rating for the side crash when equipped with curtain bags.

Not if it's a Toyota... *C&G torch smiley*

Interesting... finally the Sedona joins the Tier 1 minivans, leaving behind the rebate-reliant ones behind.

Just finished watching the Apprentice. The Lucerne looked excellent in black, though both the P-B-G dealerships looked horrible, like some Hyundai-Suzuki-Isuzu discount store. If Buick wants to get the Lexus customers, they need the right showroom and salespeople as well. The PBG store here is downright cheesy compared to its surroundings.

Yeah, I know... most of the interior materials look surprisingly good.

Well, all these Chinese look the same.

Wow, it's surprisingly decent. Something about it reminds me of the Opel Omega...

Heh... I actually like this, but then of course, I've always thought that Saturn should be the experimental, funky, fun brand. Making Saturn "sophisticated" makes it harder for mainstream Chevy to do the same.

That rear door design is useful for loading cargo and stuff, but it's not so great for parking lot mishaps.

Where? The dealer I went to didn't have any Lucernes.

Meh, people will buy Saabs just because they're not BMWs. It's just that their products aren't up to snuff, substance-wise.

What did Europe or Japan ever do to you to not deserve capitalization? :P